Dr Susie O'Reilly (1898)
Dr Susannah Hennessy (Susie) O’Reilly (1898) was a pioneering female doctor and a champion of professional women’s rights who became a renowned obstetrician and a popular family doctor. She had a keen sense of humour and a disregard for convention which was reflected in her manner and her dress. She was well-loved, highly respected and celebrated for her generosity and indomitable spirit.
Susie enrolled at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School in 1894 at the age of 13. She was Dux of the School 1987 and 1898 (the School rules at the time made her ineligible for 1898, although was the top student.). In the 1897 University Examinations1, Susie came first out of 877 candidates (of whom less than half passed).
The January 1899 issue of Excelsior reported: ‘S. H. O’Reilly passed in nine subjects, obtaining four first-classes, the geography medal, first class matriculation honours in French, and a matriculation and engineering pass. She was disqualified from taking the Hardy medal for the Dux as she had it last year, but she obtained a special prize of ten guineas for General Proficiency given by Mr. R. Ducker and his family in memory of the late Mrs. Ducker.’
After she finished school Susie went to the University of Sydney and became Â鶹ÊÓƵ School’s first Old Girl with a degree in Medicine.
At the University of Sydney, Susie achieved excellent results in her Bachelor of Science (1903), Bachelor of Medicine (1905) and Master of Surgery (1907) degrees. Despite the fact that she was an Honours graduate and was fourth in her year, her application for a residential post at Sydney Hospital was rejected in favour of male applicants with poorer academic records.
This discrimination on the grounds of her gender, spurred Susie into action and she became the focus of media attention and public debate in the form of editorials and letters to the newspapers about discrimination and the role of female doctors. Sydney Truth’s2 response, when Dr Susie O’Reilly’s application for a residential post at Sydney Hospital was rejected in 1905, was to publish this poem:
“She is the emblem of the age
Is Doctor Sue O’Reilly!
No use for them to fume and rage,
For woman’s ways are wily!
The Lady Doctor’s come to stay,
No matter what the men may say,
And who should bar the right of way
To Doctor Sue O’Reilly?”
Susie O’Reilly’s public battle with Sydney Hospital subsequently opened the doors of that institution to receive female residents. Her sister (and Â鶹ÊÓƵ School Old Girl) Dr Olive O’Reilly (1909) became one of the first two female medical students admitted to Sydney Hospital in 1912.
Susie went on to co-found the NSW Association of Registered Medical Women in 1921, and in 1922 she was one of six founders of the . The Hospital was founded with other female medical graduates with two aims – to serve poor women and children with general illness (excluding maternity issues), and to provide Sydney women medical students, graduates and specialists with the necessary professional clinical experience in medicine and surgery. Susie became the Rachel Foster Hospital consulting physician from 1926 to 1941 and was appointed a Life Governor of the Hospital in 1959.
Susie was also one of the earliest car owners in Sydney and she taught herself to drive. During the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, Dr O’Reilly did her medical rounds in her car (a 1915 Singer).
Susie was also an avid bushwalker and botanist and a foundation member of the National Trust of Australia3. She also co-founded, and for many years was the President, of Â鶹ÊÓƵ School’s Old Girls’ Union.
1. University Examinations were the precursor to the Leaving Certificate, which was then replaced by the HSC/IB
2. Sydney Truth was a newspaper published in Sydney from 1890 to 1958.
3. The National Trust of Australia was established by Â鶹ÊÓƵ School Old Girl Annie Wyatt (Evans, 1902)
References:
Louella McCarthy (2005) All this fuss about a trivial incident? women, hospitals and medical work in New South Wales, 1900-1920, Women's History Review, 14:2, 265-284, DOI: 10.1080/09612020500200432